In Rick Orlov's weekly Daily News column on City Hall and local politics, today he touches on the Democratic presidential race and Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, who has recently been criticized for his time away from the city to campaign for Hillary Clinton. He defends his out-of-town moves and talks about what happens if Clinton loses: "Look, if you're a big-city mayor and you want money from Washington, you have to get involved in these......

Los Angeles is $75 million in the red and the state is using the same colored crayon at $14 billion. And where's the Mayor? He's spending a lot of time with Hillary Clinton. Naysayers may suspect Mayor Villaraigosa is bored with LA already and is ready to climb the political ladder ASAP, but columnist Rick Orlov at the Daily News says it more has to do with a future run at Governor and better federal......

Every Monday morning, Rick Orlov of the Daily News and Steve Hymon of the LA Times write their weekly "what's going on at city hall" columns. Orlov brings an interesting story about City Council Member Dennis Zine, who represents the 3rd District in the West Valley. Zine has been given a cease and desist order from Warner Bros. over a lapel pin he has used for years as a political token to supporters. It......

If your lips are chapped, you know it must be a City of Los Angeles Red Flag Day. Welcome to yet another one in this unusual season. In other LAFD news, black ice gave them quite a scare when one of their own got pinned by a vehicle that went slippity slip! Maybe now government officials will no longer laugh at this writer when he makes complaints over unruly sprinklers. Pshaw! And please, do......

Los Angeles Daily News reporter and columnist Rick Orlov is a familiar face at City Hall. He should be—he’s covered the City Hall beat since 1988 and has been writing about politics for over 30 years. Orlov’s columns and articles are required reading for local politicos. He's a straight-shooter, though he says he gets a lot of feedback from readers suggesting he is biased one way or the other. “If you’re covering the circus,”......

As noted in LAObserved.com yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published a story this weekend about Los Angeles mayoral candidates wooing various financial backers for support. Candidates are going to need full coffers in order to pay for the heavy TV advertising necessary to compete in this spring's election. Reporter Michael Finnegan wrote: The top contenders for mayor of Los Angeles have jostled for months to make a favorable impression on Eric Bauman. Four have......

Rick Orlov, the Dean of City Hall reporters, levels with Mayor Hahn in his Daily News column. His message? Between the nascent police scandals, political controversies, and a tough field of rivals, it looks as if Jimmy's got a tough row to hoe. Orlov outlines the substance of Hahn's political peril: ...he alienated two of his key areas of support. He forced Parks out as chief, angering many in the African-American community, and he lost......